On his way from Kigali,
Rwanda, the United State’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African
Affairs, Donald Yamamoto spent three days last week in Addis, where he met
members of the government, including Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
The State Department’s
daily communiqué, issued on Tuesday, May 30, called this meeting a “quiet and
effective brand of diplomacy”.
Reliable diplomatic sources
confirmed to Fortune that Mr. Yamamoto’s frequent visits to Ethiopia are
part of the Bush Administration’s interest to launch him as a US ambassador to
Ethiopia. It will be his second posting in the Horn of Africa, after serving
Djibouti as an ambassador for three years up until 2003.
He was the Deputy Director
for East African Affairs from 1998 to 2000. Prior to that he had served in
China, Japan, and Eritrea as Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Asmara.
The U.S.
Embassy in Addis Abeba remained under Charge d’Affaires, headed by Ambassador
Vicki Huddleston. The U.S. Embassy was not available for comment.
Council to Discuss Latest Budget on Monday
The Council of
Ministers will be meeting on Monday, June 5, to discuss and approve
the federal government’s budget for the next fiscal year, prepared
by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, sources at the
Ministry disclosed.
The budget
discussion is hoped to close the series of meetings the Council has
been having in the past couple of weeks, first evaluating the
nine-month performance of the various state agencies, and followed
by discussion on the whole year performance.
New Legislation on
Directors Divides the Banking Inds
For the first
time in 12 years the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has revised its
directive that governs the appointment, conduct and terms of members
of boards of directors of banks and insurance firms.
Signed by
Governor Teklewold Atnafu on May 26, 2006, the eight-page directive
began effective as of last Thursday, June 1. It has become a cause
of serious division even within the establishment of the financial
sector. Some in the industry described the directive as “long
overdue” while others strongly criticized it as “lacking universal
standard”.
A British
citizen, who works from New York, came over here on a working visit
sometime ago, she was dumfounded to learn that the front desk at the
hotel she stayed in, Meridian Hotel, off Africa Avenue (Bole Road),
refused to accept some of the dollars notes she had, while they
seemed to not have problems with others.
She was told
the ones rejected were issued in 1996, thus no one would take them
from her. They were telling her the truth. The US dollar notes
issued in 1996 are being rejected in the markets, both in the
official and parallel money market.
The price of
sugar has shown a significant decline after its sales and
distribution has been made through public auctions beginning the
first week of April 2006. The price of sugar per quintal has fallen
from 658.52 Br to 563.15 Br.
On the retail
market, the once 12 Br per kilo has gone down by half, according to
market surveys conducted by this newspaper.
Following the
Federal government's ambitious five-year strategic plan for
Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), the
Ethiopian Road Authority, which is recognized for accomplishing
significant achievements in the EPRDF-led government, has envisaged
a 43 billion Br road network throughout the country.
ETV Cancels Tender,
Sells World Cup Airtime to Federation
The Ethiopian
Television (ETV) has finally settled with the Ethiopian Football
Federation, selling World Cup 2006 airtime for 1.4 million Br. This
comes following cancellation of its own tender issued on May 3,
inviting interested corporate sponsors to take airtime worth from
20,000 Br to 150,000 Br.
The Addis Abeba
Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association will announce on
Monday, June 5, 2005, the winner of a bid to organize a 10-day
exhibition and bazaar for the coming Ethiopian New Year. The
announcement is delayed by a week, from what was originally
scheduled for Tuesday, May 30.
Bazaars
organized a week before major public holidays at the Addis Abeba
Exhibition Centre are a business bonanza to the organizers, and a
shopping spree to the consumer public. The competition to win to
takeover the facility is fiercely competitive.
The identity
and structure of the national chamber of Commerce, which first came
to being in 1947 in its current form, is to change form very soon. A
new legislation that was passed in 2003 has a shake-up effect on how
its existing authoritative body and its members are elected and come
to represent the country’s business community.
Agency Tells
Parliament Privatization in Improving Curve
Three top
officials of the Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervising
Agency (PPESA), including its head Beyene G. Meskel, told the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Trade and Industry the process
of privatization in Ethiopia is recuperating.
Appearing
before the Committee on May 27, 2006, the three officials said five
tenders were floated in the past nine months to sell 22 state owned
enterprises off to private companies. Deals have been reached to
sell 11 of these state properties.
Public, Private Sector
Delegations Head to Washington DC for AGOA
Members of the
private sector and civil society, along with Girma Birru, minister
of Trade and Industry, have left over the weekend to attend the
fifth Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum, under
the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in Washington DC
beginning June 6.
The AGOA Forum
in Washington will host the private sector, civil society and the
Ministerial gatherings separately.
CGC Overseas
Ltd, a Chinese company, is under preparations to establish the first
sheet glass factory in Ethiopia. It has taken a 4,577sqm plot near
the Jamo River, in the Nifas Silk-Lafto District.
The company is
prepared to put up an investment of 100 million Br to erect the
factory that is hoped to manufacture 150,000tn of sheet glass a day.
It is considered to be a huge relief to the local construction
industry that has to depend on imports.
Employees of
the state owned Construction and Business Bank (CBB) have asked
their management to start providing them with fuel allowances as of
June 2006, attributing the recently higher prices in fuel and public
transport fares. The employees requested the allowance through a
petition with over 400 signatures, out of its 800 staff members.
CBB, which used
to be called the Housing and Saving Bank until September 1994, pays
fuel allowance only to top management members, department heads and
branch managers. Those in this group are not more than 50 in number.
A company based
in California, United States, and owned by Ethiopians, FeedeliX
Wireless Inc. has announced the launch of its new software that
enables mobile users to communicate through SMS in the Ge’ez
alphabet.
The company
hopes its new software solution will “dramatically change the mobile
industry landscape” for over two million Ge’ez users in Ethiopia and
around the world.
Chamber Delegation Looks for Romanian Business Opportunities
A business
mission comprised of seven members of the Addis Abeba Chamber of
Commerce and Sectoral Association will attend the 23rd International
Fair for consumer goods to be held in Bucharest, Romania from May 3
to June 4.
Teferi Asfaw,
head of the Media Relations Department, told Fortune that the
mission would attend the Fair in order to have one to one
discussions with the exhibitors and to find international companies
interested in possible joint ventures with Ethiopian firms.
The Yemereha Hotel, owned by Green Land Tours (GLT) and based in
Lalibela, 700Km away from Addis Abeba, has begun giving service in
25 of its 120 rooms.
It has also
begun giving service at one of its restaurants.
The Hotel,
named after one of the 11 rock hewed churches in Lalibela, cost 35
million Br and will be completed after a year. It rests on a
36,000sqm plot and will have an additional restaurant along the 120
rooms.
Tsega G.Mehdin
lies in a hospital bed at Zewditu Referral Hospital after having
just undergone a surgery to remove a goitre from her neck.
She is 22 years
old and moved to Addis Abeba at the age of 12. When she moved to her
new life in the big city from the area known as Bezat in Adigrat, in
the Tigray Regional State, she was quite healthy.
Cement
Prices Strike at the Heart of the Urban Economy
The price of cement has gotten
too horrific to consider for house builders in town. Hitting the roof at 200 Br
per quintal, many were taken aback from their dreams of having their own house.
At the industry level, it is havoc, discovered our staff writers Derese
Nigatu, Wudineh Zenebe and Habte Tadesse.
The
recent visit by Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, to Addis Abeba may
have a lot to do with the African Union (AU), in his country’s bid to solicit
support to Japan’s potential membership at the United Nations Security Council.
Constantinos Berhe Tesfu (PhD) took the opportunity to reflect on
Ethiopia’s historical relationship with Japan and how the latter could help the
...
I was expecting a heated debate to be unleashed around the proposed
five-year plan. To my dismay, the economic pundits have so far
preferred to keep mum. Economics is often called the dismal science.
Nevertheless, the five-year plan should have elicited some interest
among the intellectual elite because it is the blueprint that will
determine the shape of things to come whether one likes it or not.
There are at
least 189 UN member countries in the world and more are expected to
claim recognition in due course. People believe that the world is
after all a God-given free resource to be shared by mankind and that
men and women are not born in a place of their own free choice.
Moving from place to place both within and across borders of
countries .....
My tall Gojame friend called Thursday afternoon to kindly give me
some information that I needed. He enquired about what I was writing
about, and I ......
As I was on my
way to work the other morning, I noticed three teenagers in their
school uniforms hanging out in the cut so that they could not be
seen.....
There
are at least 189 UN member countries in the world and more
are expected to claim recognition in due course. People
believe that the world is after all a God-given free
resource to be shared by mankind and that men and women are
not born in a place of their own free choice. Moving from
place to place both within and across borders of countries........
Habtesellassie
Tafesse, known most notably for being the godfather of Ethiopian
tourism, now finds himself in the limelight after having a low
profile for a considerable time.
He was the head
of the Ethiopian Tourism Board during the Imperial government.
......
